Today is a day set aside to honor veterans; those who served or serve in our American armed forces. Honor is a beautiful thing. When we honor these men and woman we project from something in our hearts outward by way of appreciation, thankfulness, and respect. Scripture commands us to honor one another. In essence, to lift one another up with esteem and selfless love and care. We are grateful for our servicemen and women.
Honor is one thing. Reverence is something else entirely. See how the Message version of the Bible reads from Hebrews 12:25-28
His voice that time shook the earth to its foundations; this time—he’s told us this quite plainly—he’ll also rock the heavens: “One last shaking, from top to bottom, stem to stern.” The phrase “one last shaking” means a thorough housecleaning, getting rid of all the historical and religious junk so that the unshakable essentials stand clear and uncluttered.
28-29 Do you see what we’ve got? An unshakable kingdom! And do you see how thankful we must be? Not only thankful, but brimming with worship, deeply reverent before God.
Reverence is a deep overflowing worship of God. He alone receives it. Did you notice the shaken language? We’ve said during our Shaken sermon series that sometimes the word is used in Scripture in a negative context (For example: Our faith will not be shaken). Here, the word is used is such a way that seems to bridge a negative connotation with a positive one. God has been and will shake our foundations with his power to rid our lives of the things that don’t bring him glory and to bring about the things in our lives which will truly worship and glorify him! Sounds a little frightening. Sounds pretty exciting, too!
I asked my friend Doug to share how God was doing this very thing in his life. Here’s what he said:
I just wanted to let you know how excited Yolanda and I are about SHAKEN. It was 5 years ago that we started coming to church and that's when WOCC was starting the Cannonball initiative. What an exciting time it was for us to see and hear stories from people about surrendering your resources for the cause of spreading the Gospel. Prior to us coming to church, we both felt like everything we had belonged to us. Now we feel like we could help someone else out who is struggling and fearful of the idea of stepping out in trust with your time and money.
We've seen firsthand how Cannonball has brought hundreds of new people through the doors of our new church home. We love how WOCC uses the resources given to them both in our community and across the globe. We continue to trust and are proud of the job that our leaders here at WOCC do in order to bring people to full life in Jesus. We are both fired up to see where SHAKEN leads all of us. We strongly encourage folks to SHAKE it up and trust the Lord with what is His in the first place.
That’s what I’m asking God to do in this season in each of our lives. To shake us up from top to bottom ridding our lives of the things we hold onto so that we can stand reverently before our Heavenly Father clear, uncluttered, and fully surrendered. Are you asking him to do that in you today?
Brimming with worship,
Nathan
P.S. Remember, this coming Sunday, November 13 in our worship services (and online) we will affirm our new elders serving at White Oak in 2023. If you have been a partner in ministry at WOCC for more than three months and you’re at least 18-years-old, I invite you to participate in our affirmation of our leaders.
Nathan Hinkle
Lead Pastor
White Oak Christian Church